Teen seriously hurt, cops seeking hit-and-run driver

Fort Lauderdale Police are asking the public to help find a hit and run driver. (Fort Lauderdale Police…)

January 31, 2013|By Linda Trischitta, Sun Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE — Termaine Toney was riding his bicycle south along Southwest Fourth Avenue when he was struck at West Davie Boulevard by a dark sedan that kept on going.

Toney, 16, of Fort Lauderdale, was on his way to visit a friend when he was seriously injured in the 7:30 p.m. crash Tuesday.

"Thank God he is still living and breathing," said Toney's mother, Johnea McCrea, about her middle child, who is 6-foot-4 and loves to play basketball. "He's still in the hospital, where they have him on oxygen in the ICU. He's in a lot of pain."

Despite her son's size, she said the crash broke much of the left side of his body, including nine ribs, his arm and his leg.

"His lungs are punctured, and he had gashes above his left eye," McCrea said.

"We're looking for anyone who can add to the description of the car," Garcia said Thursday.

The car likely has damage to its windshield or front end, or was recently repaired.

Toney is a high school sophomore in Fort Lauderdale.

McCrea said she's upset the driver gets to go on with his or her life without facing consequences for the crash.

"I just want the person that did this to my son to come forward," McCrea said. "You just can't hit no one and leave the scene and keep going on with their life. It's just not right. Someone needs to be held accountable to my son's situation."

Two similar cases that have made headlines are the still-unsolved Jan. 9 hit-and-run crash that killed pedestrian DeAndre Binns, 6, on Miramar Parkway in Miramar.

On Jan. 16, during a hit-and-run crash on Hollywood's North Ocean Drive near Meade Street, a bicyclist was struck down by a car and is still in intensive care at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Hollywood Police Sgt. Gene Cochenour said Thursday.

The agency is turning to Broward Crime Stoppers to seek tips about the driver who left the injured cyclist in the road. Crime Stoppers' number is 954-493-8477.

"It's scary," McCrea said about the crash. "I have other friends this has happened to. The parents are crying and the kids are hurt. There needs to be justice for this."

Fort Lauderdale Police ask anyone with information about who may have hit Toney to call Traffic Homicide Investigator Jonathan Graham at 954-828-5125.